How did you go about dropping daytime breastfeeds for older babies?

[becca3210]

Hi I want to drop two day time breastfeeds for my soon to be ten month old son over the next month or so in preparation for returning to work. Any advice/experiences would be useful.

He normally feeds after his two naps but sometimes needs a feed to go down to sleep. He isn't used to having milk from a bottle or a cup.

Feeling anxious as he loves the comfort of is and despite it being offered doesn't drink much water or eat much solids. He is really active and would rather be out exploring. Thank you

Did you find it made it easier by offering milk from a cup when they would normally have a feed or is it better to just try and remove that association? Thanks

With my two the daytime feeds naturally dropped when I went back to work and they were in nursery or with DH four days a week (I went back at ten months with both of them). We had a few weeks where they did have daytime feeds when they were with me, but they petered out quite quickly. By their first birthdays they only fed first thing in the morning and before bed.

Neither of mine ever had a bottle, though they did take well to solids and water, which made it a bit easier. But you may well find that he becomes more interested in solids when you're not there as an alternative! Have you had any decent periods away from him (several hours)? If so, how did he cope with that? We did a few stretches of a good few hours with DH before I went back to work, and mine accepted quite quickly Daddy meant food/water/cups of milk.

It depends 'why' you're dropping these feeds.

If you're dropping them to prepare your body and to not feel uncomfortable/ engorged then just start shortening them. Pop baby on for a very short time and then distract with snack / juicy fruit etc.

If you're dropping so he's emotionally prepared to not feed in nursery - they just magically get used to the fact you're not there! My LO would ask for milk but only when I was around. It went much smoother than I thought and I still managed to do day time breastfeeds again at weekends

Thank you so much both. I am going to build in time for him to be away from me over the next few weeks as he hasn't had much experience of this. Guess I am dropping them to prepare body and also to prepare him. Would ideally like to stop day time feeds for days I am home with him as well so there is consistency but guess he may want to catch up on missed feeds and don't want him to be upset if I refuse so am a bit conflicted there x

I personally liked the extra breastfeeds at the weekend, felt like our little five minutes to reconnect. Plus I was keen to breastfeed until LO was two so I was happy to bump up feeds when we were together :)

Yes it is a lovely way to reconnect. Thank you for sharing your experience